KL-Singapore HSR high-speed rail project is off – PM

The KL-Singapore high-speed rail (HSR) project has been called off, according to prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad in an interview with the Financial Times, reported by Reuters. The new Pakatan Harapan government has promised to review all mega projects started by the previous administration.

“We need to do away with some of the unnecessary projects, for example the high-speed rail, which is going to cost us RM110 billion and will not earn us a single cent. That will be dropped,” Mahathir told the FT. “We have an agreement with Singapore. We have to talk with Singapore about dropping that project,” he added.

Signed in December 2016, the HSR was planned as a 350 km-long double-track route (335 km of which was supposed to be in Malaysia, and 15 km in Singapore) with eight stops in total – Singapore, Iskandar Puteri, Batu Pahat, Muar, Ayer Keroh, Seremban, Putrajaya and Kuala Lumpur. A bridge over the Straits of Johor – with a height clearance of 25 metres – would have linked the line between both countries.

Trains on the service were expected to run 10 car-long trains, with the capacity for up to 100 passengers per car. These trains were projected to run at average speeds of 300 km/h and bring down the rail travel time between KL and Singapore to 90 minutes.

Said to be South East Asia’s largest ever infrastructure project, the proposed rail network attracted interest from Japan with the Shinkansen bullet train, China, South Korea and several European countries. It was expected to start operations from 2026.

Dropping the HSR project would mean compensating Singapore. “The terms of the agreement are such that if we decide to drop the project, it will cost us a lot of money. So we are going to find out how we can reduce the amount of money we have to pay for breaking the agreement,” Mahathir told The Edge last week.

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If our country rich like Dubai, then I don’t see a problem for building HSR. But our country poor like shit hutang 1 tril still wanna act rich and build HSR? Even if build already, can our rakyat afford to sit HSR?
Whats wrong with taking Airasia?
Only when our gaji is as high as Japan only start talking about Shinkansen/HSR. Sadly, now our gaji is not up to par and our country is heavily in debt. A lot of things need to be fixed and settled before looking into HSR. I hope the rakyat can wait and focus on the bigger problem our country is currently facing.

I agreed with his decision, plus those Malaysian working in Singapore didn’t pay any tax to the country. And yet Singapore would only pay for the 10km linking Jurong to Iskandar while Malaysia need to pay for the rest of 300km. If Singapore want HSR badly, please share the cost 50/50.

ECRL also started already but about to be scrapped as well. Last time after the crooked bridge was called off they get a cool rm100 millions compensation for that erected pillars. So now, more millions if not billion goes up in smoke to justify this action when in fact long term spillover economic effects are there for the benefit of rakyat.

Our dear Tun;
Thank you for saving our country from financial disaster.
Can u do the rakyat somemore justice,by bringing to book the high ranking officers/dept heads who willingly sign our country into financial ruin?
Also,kindly get the cops to nab the VVIP who allow his condo to store the illicit loot..cash and jewellery.
If a rakyat were to allow a thief or robber to store illicit loot,he will be charged as well.Why is there a delay in charging the VVIP? Is he above the law?
Thank you once again.

Wait la, let the popos do their job. Besides, innocent until proven guilty what????
If got case, then sure kena charge. Rule of law what? Let the system run without interference la. Kalau tak kena charge lansunqg also, sudah la. Besides, tun got no power to haul or charge anyone, he’s the PM not the AG.

You are a liar. You hate people got 1 Focking Million. You lie. I stay in Pura Kencana. Terrace House there are selling at 400K, NOT FOCKING 1 MILLION! It is these people like YOU who make Malaysia 1 step back. If you want to comment, please comment properly. Show that you are a mature guy, gay or gals.

I would like to suggest instead of HSR, asks PLUS to create a new 2 lane highway from pedas direct to JB bypassing ayer keroh, tangkak, yong peng etc. No commercial vehicle is allowed to use this and maximum speed is maybe 125kmh. This will have a similar effect to HSR while reducing the load on current south stretch which can be slowed down by interchanges and narrow 2 lanes. The new one will have a better effect as instead of widening the highway from 4 to 6 lanes it become 8 lanes in total and average travelling speed is also reduced by between 25-30%.

Also make the R&R to be in the centre of the highway where both northbound and southbound share the same facility.

Tun M has his reasons but more evaluation will have to be done to consider the benefits. If the Government does not want this because it has NO Money. PLEASE give the project to the PRIVATE Sector to build and Operate the HSR. Malaysian Expertise will be enhanced and OUR Rail Engineering Skills World Class. Malaysia have experts in this field with almost 10 local bidders. The Government can support the loan from the Asian Development Bank and Japanese EXIM Banks. WHY waste this Opportunity. MALAYSIA BOLEH. We do not been the MoF to pay for this project. Tun M should LET GO to the PRIVATE SECTOR TO BENEFIT THE RAKHYAT. SYABAS

If he says no return, who would want to waste money investing in this project? Just to ponder, who would want to pay a train ticket that is going to be more expensive than travelling first class flight to a destination farther away?

Surely if you look purely on the debt alone, this project deserves a place at the bottom of the dustbin. But government projects have never been assessed that way. Case in point being MRT, LRT, the loss-making Rapid buses and Putrajaya itself which is the single largest PFI project Malaysia has ever undertaken under the you-know-who.

The fact that KUL – SIN route being the busiest international route in the world surely doesn’t help with the justification. Not to mention, the potential spillover economic effects to the towns where those stops were supposed to be. Alas, these are the justifications used by the previous administration.

I would really like to hear what EPU and UKAS DG and people from MOF have to say about this. If they can’t defend projects their departments came up with, wholeheartedly, surely they don’t deserve to be holding those posts. If this project is a total shit right from the start, with risks far out weighting the benefits, why they did give the go ahead?

Isn’t it obvious by now, they’re scrapping it because if they proceed with it, PH is to govt of the day but the BN cronies and ex-ministers are still profiting from it.

Give it a year or two. They’re already assembling their own cronies behind the scenes to reboot this project under a different name. Some PH-friendly businessmen are already being tapped. Whether it materialises or not, we’ll see.. but things are already being set in motion. I’ve already been approached by business partners who are aligned to the new guard so I guess a few others in the know would be too.

Just think back Tun’s key word during the press conference “we will not make a single sen from it”

Why did he say like that? My humble guess is “low ridership” due to the high ticket price, assume we we build shinkasen line. did u know that AA and Malindo daily flights from KLIA to Changi most of it being priced btw RM 99 – RM 150 / 1 way?

Logically, can “shinkasen bolehland” tickets be priced at that level when the HSR development cost = RP 60 B or more. If I still recall correctly, shinkasen ticket from Osaka to Fukuoka Japan cost RM 700+ (one way). My staff was sent there for a business trip and he came back to claim his bill in 2013! Distance O to F was approx 600 km.

The Gemas-JB double-track project is about to start anyway. So constructing 2 new railway lines parallel to each other at about the same time seems like overkill to me, especially since we don’t have the money.

But to have an HSR in the future from Singapore to KL, and eventually to Penang, is certainly a nice-to-have infrastructure in our country. It does bring our country up a notch.

When mahathir was the fourth pm, the idea for the electrified double track project are from thailand to singapore. And he has a vision of a shinkansen type train. But we only got ets gemas-padang besar

If u look at the broaden pictures, China will be Asian and ASEAN, and KL and Singapore will be the hub. If you look at the population growth of China, and Malaysian, a tiny country, will benefit from the KL and Singapore, via the HSR (cancelled) via the Double Trak- see whether they can maximize to 3+ from 5 hour. The city via the stops will benefit from the property, f&b too, long term. If HSR better for us, but if double trak, reduce to 3+ from 5 hours. It the government debt for instance, say lim guan eng, 80% for Malaysia (for the record majority is local), but u look at China, at 80%, Japan is at 200% etc… US is 100% (has to be foreign) Please look at the internet sources. Government is debt, but would be high bank borrowing, people and u and me, will try and reduce our borrowing. Government is good for bank borrowing, and people reduce the borrowing.

110b project has to be cancelled coz no money…just keep the gst running for antother 3 yrs…1 yr can get 40b…three yrs already 120b…then revert back to sst hehe…u still get extra 10b for BR1M to those affected with gst

Perhaps government could consider developing Skudai station into a KTM junction and convert old KTM station in JB to MRT. This way, perhaps we can also finally rationalise between the different types of rolling stock and associated signalling. Perhaps….

Sarawak belum ada lebuhraya yang standard, semenanjung sudah mau bina highspeed train, Pui….
Im happy the project has been called off cuz the cost partially has to be paid by the natural gas and oil exploited in Sarawak where many areas are still struggling for electricity.

Dear Tun, for that compensation I suggest we just trade with our huge load of palm oil instead of money, and yes..please negotiate and renegotiated until we have only to pay minimum amount of penalty. Lastly, claim it from UMNO and Najib coffers also.

Singapore just 15km and MY has 335km of HSR yet we, MY has to compensate Singapore if we cancelled this HSR??? Really? Did SG forgotten they didn’t fully investigate and report 1MDB case 100%?? just closed few small investment bank and jailed banker doesn’t do righteous enough…

Dear Tun M, please pressure SG to dig more 1MDB and divulge everything! It’s time for this pirate nation of SEA(top money laundering destination) to remorse and repent!

Not forgetting, SG need to improve their custom and immigration….. daily jam at causeway is purposely directed by their government. 2 years ago, after Johor Sultan voiced out, everything improved 1000x and then it slowly creeps back as before….. who will believe one of the world most efficient government has such custom and immigration on land, yet their air (changi) are ranked world best……

Just cancel it. No benefit to kampung folks like me. I have no money to shop in singapore. Wait… you mean this project is for rich people to easy travel to singapore and back for shopping? And they use government money to built this? Should be a private project if any entity dare to takeover.

Assuming HSR operating from 6am to 12am every day (18hours) with 90min (ride) + 30min (embark & disembark), there would be 18 trips for both ways (9 trips/way). A 1,000 passenger ride/train with rm250 ticket (KL-SG / SG-KL), each day HSR could carry a maximum number of 18,000 passengers @ RM4.5 mil ticket sales per day which roughly brings to RM1.65bil revenue a year. For 40 years, the total ticket sales would be RM65.7 billion and still could not cover the total development cost. This calculation is on 100% full-fare ridership with no train breakdown at all for 40 years and EXCLUDES any operating cost. No wonder TDM said we will not earn a single cent.

So, HSR is off. Does this mean the Crooked Bridge in back on? Yeah, the main reason why the present PM got so angry with the previous PM for not following his instruction and failed to keep his promise to build the bridge? Just asking

non feasible project – ECRL included. the ticket price would be beyond the reach of many. Flights has so much potential to improve including using larger planes (lower cost/seat), better technology. Can’t be said much about HSR – whether we could afford changing the train oftenly enough just like the Japs. The cost is too high to justify it now.

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